Humbled Commission really needs to get its priorities right

Date: 03/05/01

Europe's political elites have always treated public opinion like some people view marital fidelity - as a vow they pledge to obey but make little attempt to respect.

Take Denmark. When the old continent's second most sceptic country turned down the EU's engagement offer at Maastricht, the bloc's marriage fixers simply removed all the obstacles in the way of 'ever closer union' to get the answer they wanted. And eight years later, when the Danes said no again - this time to the single currency - European leaders queued up to announce how much they regretted the democratic decision of the Danish people.

The Danes were the lucky ones. Normally, the public aren't even asked what they think about the direction Europe is heading in.

But twice a year 1,000 lucky people from each member state are pummelled with a barrage of questions by Union-funded pollsters. The results are published in Eurobarometer - a door-stop-sized wedge of statistics, graphs and pie-charts which lands on journalists' desks every spring and autumn.

The European Commission's press people usually pluck out a few figures to show that support for the European project is unwavering and that confidence in the Commission is at an all-time high. But this year they didn't bother - and on closer inspection it is easy to see why.

After almost 45 years of existence, less than half of those interviewed felt that their country had benefited from membership of the EU; enlargement of the Union to central and eastern Europe is seen as the least important of the bloc's priorities; and with only months to go until the euro hits the streets, the number of people against scrapping their national currencies has risen from a quarter to 37% in the last two years.

But perhaps the most disturbing statistic of all is the level of public ignorance about the EU. When asked what the Union spent most of its money on, 30% said meetings, buildings and officials' salaries. In reality, the bloc spends only 5% of its budget on administration, while the bulk of taxpayers' money is flitted on farm subsidies and regional funds.

The Commission's spokesman Jonathan Faull said this week that he felt "humbled" by the Eurobarometer findings and admitted that the press and communications outfit he runs had "not been very successful" at explaining what the EU does and why.

This is hardly surprising given the lack of media experience most of the Commission's PR people have, the turgid way in which information is served up to the public and the continuing confusion over which Commissioner is responsible for relations with the press.

However, Faull added that the prime responsibility for the public's knowledge deficit lay not with the Commission, but with the member states. One reason is that national governments are quick to take credit for the European Union's successes, but the first to blame 'Brussels' for its failures. Another is that all too often, governments profit from public ignorance about European issues.

In his autopsy of the results, Commission Vice-President Neil Kinnock blamed the press for the parlous state of Europe's body politic. It is indeed no coincidence that newspaper-loving northern Europeans are also the least enthusiastic members of the Union, because in the EU's rainy region coverage of European affairs is lamentably bad (this fine title excluded, of course).

But it would be wrong to 'shoot the messenger' for the off-message news Eurobarometer brings. Instead, the Commission would be better advised to pay more attention to the public's priorities - fighting crime, poverty, unemployment and pollution - rather than steamrollering ahead with projects like the euro and enlargement which receive only lukewarm support.

No one is suggesting that the Commission should launch the sort of charm offensive US President George W. Bush has embarked upon. Pictures of President Romano Prodi in the bath or mucking about on his estate are unlikely to endear him to the public in the same way as they do for Bush in the States.

But if the Commission really does have pretensions to be a future European government, as Chancellor Gerhard Schröder believes it should, it needs to start acting on the public's priorities, not just jotting them down in a folder marked 'for future attention'.

Feature on the implications of the findings in Eurobarometer, Spring 2001 regarding public opinion on the EU. Writer suggests the Commission needs to start acting on the public's priorities.